As a long-time sports enthusiast who has witnessed the ebb and flow of Olympic broadcasting, I must say that NBCUniversal has truly outdone themselves with the Paris Olympics. The impressive viewership figures and streaming records they’ve set are a testament to their relentless pursuit of excellence in sports coverage.
NBCUniversal will never lose Paris as the stunning backdrop for a significant recovery of its Summer Olympics endeavors.
The company reported that the 2024 Paris Olympics, concluded on Sunday with an event at Stade de France and a transfer of the baton to the upcoming Los Angeles Summer Games, attracted an average of 30.6 million viewers across all broadcast platforms during its daytime coverage (2-5 p.m. ET in the U.S.) and nightly shows. This is a significant increase of 82% compared to the last Summer Olympics held in Tokyo three years ago, which managed an average of only 16.9 million viewers across all broadcasts during its daytime and prime-time slots.
During the Tokyo Olympics, many events took place in nearly vacant arenas because of COVID-19 restrictions. This city is known for a greater time difference compared to the U.S., as opposed to Paris. NBCUniversal significantly expanded its streaming options on Peacock and various digital platforms this year, offering critically acclaimed live broadcasts of every sport and medal event.
As a sports enthusiast looking forward to the 2024 Olympics, I’m thrilled to know that the expected viewership is likely to surpass both the 2016 (26 million viewers) and 2012 (30.3 million) games. However, it’s important to note that streaming was barely a factor during those events, which took place before Nielsen began incorporating out-of-home viewing into their daily statistics. This means that the actual viewership could potentially be even higher!
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, viewing time reached an unprecedented record on Peacock and other digital platforms, totaling 23.5 billion minutes. This is a staggering 40% increase compared to the collective streaming viewership of all previous Olympics (summer and winter) since NBCU began live streaming in 2008. If we were to rank the Paris games as a streaming series, they would likely place among the top five most-watched titles of 2024 according to Nielsen’s streaming data.
During the 17-day span of the games, NBC Universal recorded an average of 4.1 million daily streaming viewers, predominantly on their platform Peacock. Additionally, they operated two Paris Extra digital channels. Notably, NBCU also mentioned that approximately one out of every five Olympic viewers engaged with Gold Zone, a platform that frequently displayed multiple events concurrently and highlighted almost every gold medal-winning moment.
The number of people watching the Olympics on Telemundo increased significantly, as their Spanish-language coverage saw a boost of 26% compared to the previous games in Tokyo.
“NBC Sports president Rick Cordella stated that the Paris Olympics have attracted massive interest among Americans through NBCUniversal channels. With over 3,000 dedicated staff members working behind the scenes in Paris and Stamford, our top-tier engineering and production teams have been working around the clock to deliver these reimagined Games in unique and modern ways across different time zones and platforms. We are delighted that Americans have taken a liking to and enjoyed the 2024 Olympics as much as we have.”
Mark Lazarus, chairman of NBCUniversal Media Group, stated, “We sold more advertising for the Paris Olympics than any other Games, and we fulfilled our promises to all our partners. Our Parks and Studios benefited enormously from this exposure, with the ‘halo effect’ positively impacting all our ventures. The Paris Olympics were as thrilling as expected, and we’re already looking forward to collaborating with the IOC and USOPC for Milan-Cortina in 2026 and LA28.”
During the last weekend, the men’s basketball gold medal game between the U.S. and France attracted approximately 19.5 million viewers on NBC and Peacock. This was more than double the number of viewers for the corresponding final matchup in Tokyo, and it marked the highest viewership for a gold-medal basketball game since 1996.
During the Olympics, NBC News benefited from a similar glow as the games themselves. Both the morning show “Today” and the nightly news program “NBC Nightly News” outperformed their network rivals throughout the Olympic period (up to August 8). Specifically, “Today” attracted an average of 3.1 million viewers during this timeframe, while “Nightly News” increased its viewership to 7.64 million viewers – a significant contrast to the 2.52 million and 5.73 million viewers they had in the four weeks prior to the games’ start.
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2024-08-13 03:25